Perfect Writer:1.00:CDP OEM/Lesson/ADVINTRO.MSS
Text file with Advanced Introduction to Perfect Writer. File content Advanced Introduction To Perfect Writer On The Columbia Data Products (CDP) Multi-Personal Computer (MPC) This lesson is designed to serve as a general review of Perfect Writer's text editing commands. If you have had no previous experience with computers or word processors, you may want to read through the Introductory Lessons on Perfect Writer first, beginning with the document `teachme.pw'. THE NUMBER KEYPAD Many of the Perfect Writer commands are implemented with the Number Keypad which is located at the far right of the MPC keyboard. Most of the keys are labeled with a word or symbol in addition to the number. It is with that word or symbol that we will identify the keys. The `Pg Dn' and `Pg Up' keys will scroll the screen to the next and previous pages of text. to the next screen using `Pg Dn'. The `HOME' and `END' Keys move you to the beginning and end of your document. The `ARROW KEYS' move the cursor (the blinking box or underscore which marks your position on the screen), in the direction indicated. If held, the Arrow keys will repeat their function, skipping the cursor rapidly across the screen. THE BACKSPACE KEY The BACKSPACE Key, located above the carriage return key, moves the cursor backwards on a line, deleting characters as it goes. In the beginning this will be your basic means of deleting mistyped characters. PERFECT WRITER'S COMMAND KEYS Two command keys are used to produce most of Perfect Writer's commands. These are: The Ctrl Key (labeled `Ctrl' on the keyboard) The Esc Key (labeled `Esc' on the keyboard) A Control Command is executed by holding the Control key while typing the second character of the command. For example, `Ctrl--F' means hold the Control key and type `f'. An Escape Command is executed by typing and releasing the Escape Key, followed by whatever character completes the command. For example, `Esc...F' means type and release the Escape key. Then, type `f'. The variety of commands that we will be presenting in this lesson will be either Escape or Control commands and will be executed in the manner just described. CANCELLING A COMMAND Sometimes you will enter a command by mistake, or change your mind before the command has been acted upon by Perfect Writer. In such a case, you would like to cancel the given command. To do this, enter: Ctrl---G THE HELP DIRECTORY If you forget a command, and would like a quick review of the commands of Perfect Writer, type: Esc...? A help menu will be displayed, and you can select a topic which includes the commands you are looking for. SPLITTING THE SCREEN Perfect Writer offers you the capability of splitting the screen into two screens or `windows', each of which can hold a separate document or display different parts of the same document. The screen commands are: Ctrl---X 2 (Splits the screen into two windows) PgDn PgUp (Scroll the window containing the cursor) Ctrl---PgDn Ctrl---PgUp (Scroll the window not containing the cursor) Ctrl---X o (Transfer the cursor to the `other' window from the one it currently occupies.) Ctrl---X 1 (Create one window.) READING A DOCUMENT FROM DISKETTE There are basically two ways to read a DOCUMENT from your diskette into machine memory. The first way is to select option `r' on Perfect Writer's Main Menu. `R' will retrieve a named file from diskette for you to revise. To read a document from diskette while editing in Perfect Writer, use the FIND DOCUMENT Command: Ctrl---X Ctrl---F Perfect Writer will ask for the name of the document to be `found'. After you have entered the filename, Perfect Writer will read the document into a workspace in memory, and switch you to it for editing. If the screen has been divided into two windows, then each window is considered to be a separate workspace, so only the window containing the cursor will be replaced with the new file. CREATING A DOCUMENT There are two ways to create a new document, just as there are two ways to read a file from the diskette. The first method is to select option `c' on Perfect Writer's Main Selection Menu. When Perfect Writer asks for a file name, enter the name of the file that you want to create. The second method is the FIND DOCUMENT command: Ctrl---X Ctrl---F When Perfect Writer asks for a file name for your document, enter the name of the file that you want to create. SAVING A DOCUMENT TO DISKETTE The Perfect Writer command to SAVE a document is: Ctrl---X Ctrl---S When you enter this command, the document you are editing will be saved on diskette under the same name that it was read from or created from. The old version of the file (on the diskette) will be overwritten. If you are using two windows, only the document in the window containing the cursor will be saved. If you would like to save the document under a different name, enter the WRITE command: Ctrl---X Ctrl---W Perfect Writer will then ask for the name of the file that you want the current document to be written to. Again, if the document already appears on the diskette, it will be overwritten. QUICK PRINTING YOUR DOCUMENT To print the document currently being edited, type the PRINT DOCUMENT Command: Control--X Control--P Perfect Writer will ask if you want to pause for manual insertion of single sheets. You must answer `Y' or `N'. Perfect Writer will then print the current document exactly as you have created it on the screen, simultaneously saving it to disk. Following the print operation you will be returned to the Main Selection Menu. MOVING THE CURSOR There are many ways of moving the cursor. Cursor commands are best understood by the size of move they make. ONE CHARACTER AT A TIME The Arrow keys Move the cursor one character at a (on the Number Keypad) time in the direction indicated. WORD COMMANDS Esc...F Moves the cursor FOREWARD one word Esc...B Moves the cursor BACKWARD one word LINE COMMANDS Ctrl---(Left Arrow) or Ctrl---A Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line (Think of `A' as the start of the alphabet) Ctrl---(Right Arrow) or Ctrl---E Moves the cursor to the END of the current line SENTENCE COMMANDS Esc...A Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current sentence Esc...E Moves the cursor to the END of the current sentence PARAGRAPH COMMANDS Esc...P Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph Esc...N Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph DOCUMENT COMMANDS HOME Moves the cursor to the beginning (On the Number Keypad) of the document END Moves the cursor to the END of the (On the Number Keypad) document INSERTING TEXT AND ADJUSTING After you have moved the cursor to the place where you want to insert text, enter the text by typing it in. Perfect Writer will insert text at the position of the cursor, pushing all other text aside to make room. As a result, some words may extend beyond the right screen margin. This can be corrected with the ADJUST PARAGRAPH command: Esc...Q Type the ADJUST PARAGRAPH command every time you insert or delete text. If the continual shuffling of existing text becomes distracting, you may open a space for text insertion with the OPEN INSERT command: `Ins' Key This key will insert an open line at the location of the cursor, so that text can be inserted without the continual readjustment of the existing text. You can repeat this command to open additional lines. When you are finished inserting text in that location, type the CLOSE INSERT command: Esc...Control--O The CLOSE INSERT command will remove the extra lines that the OPEN INSERT command has opened in the text. DELETING TEXT Like the commands to move the cursor, there are many commands used to delete text. Different commands delete different amounts of text. BACKSPACE Key Deletes the character PRECEDING the cursor (deletes backward) Esc...BACKSPACE Key Deletes the word PRECEDING the cursor (deletes words backwards) Ctrl---D DELETES the character indicated by the cursor (deletes forward) Esc...D DELETES the current WORD from the cursor to the end of the word `Del' Deletes text from the cursor to the end of the current LINE. Esc...K Deletes text from the cursor to the end of the current SENTENCE DELETING REGIONS Deleting regions larger than a sentence requires two steps. The region must first be `marked' and then the region can be deleted using the `WIPE REGION' command. After deleting a region, you may want to adjust the paragraph using the `Esc...Q' command. There are two ways of marking a region. The first way defines a paragraph. Position the cursor anywhere in the paragraph to be deleted, then type the DEFINE PARAGRAPH command: Esc...H The paragraph can now be deleted using the WIPE REGION command: Ctrl---W To delete a region of text larger than a paragraph, mark the beginning of the text to be deleted using the MARK SET command: Esc... An invisible mark will be set at the position of the cursor, representing the UPPER boundary of the region to be deleted. Now, move the cursor to the end of the region, afterwards deleting the text using the WIPE REGION command: Ctrl---W YANKBACK Perfect Writer TEMPORARILY saves the last deletion larger than a single character. Such a deletion can be recalled using the YANKBACK command. YANKBACK will protect you from accidental deletions. It also provides a simple means of transferring large regions of text. To YANKBACK the last deletion of text, move the cursor to the position that you want the text to appear, and type: Ctrl---Y Perfect Writer will immediately insert the last group of deletions at the position of the cursor. If deletions are made consecutively, they will be considered as a group and inserted together using the YANKBACK command. Only the LAST GROUP OF DELETIONS is saved and can be inserted using the YANKBACK command. Repeating the YANKBACK command will insert another copy of the same text. INSERTING DOCUMENTS Perfect Writer provides a command that allows you to insert another document into the one you are editing. This command is called the INSERT DOCUMENT command. First, move the cursor to the position that you want the file inserted at. Then type the INSERT DOCUMENT command: Ctrl---X I Perfect Writer will ask for the filename of the document you want to insert. When you have entered the file name, the contents of the file will immediately be inserted at the position of the cursor. SOME MISCELLANEOUS COMMANDS Perfect Writer provides many useful editing commands. Some of them are: Ctrl---T Transpose Characters Esc...T Transpose Words To transpose two characters, place the cursor on the SECOND of the two characters to be transposed. Then type the command. To transpose two words, place the cursor BETWEEN the two words the be transposed. Then type the command. The CASE of words Perfect Writer provides several commands for Capitalizing words and for changing words into uppercase or lowercase. Esc...C Capitalize Word Esc...U UPPERCASE Word Esc...L lowercase Word Each of these commands can be used to modify words which already appear in the document. For each command, place the cursor before the word to be changed and type the command. MOVING TEXT The procedure for moving any text is as follows: 1) Delete the word, sentence, paragraph, or region of text in to the Save Buffer. 2) Move the cursor to the new location. 3) Restore the material using the Yankback Command (Control--Y). Moving text between documents is easily accomplished using the split screen command, where each window holds a different document. Delete the text from one window, move the cursor to the other window, and yankback the text at the desired location. When you have inserted the text, you may need to adjust the paragraph using the ADJUST PARAGRAPH command (`Esc...Q'). COPYING TEXT `Copying' differs from `moving' in that when the operation is complete, the text is present at both the old and new locations. Copying is available in Perfect Writer only for text `regions'. It requires marking boundaries, similar to the DELETE REGIONS commands. The procedure for copying text is: 1) Move the cursor to the BEGINNING of the region to be copied. 2) Mark the beginning of the region with the MARK SET command: Esc... 3) Move the cursor to the end of the region, and copy the region using the COPY REGION command: Esc...W 4) Move the cursor to the new position and restore the text using the YANKBACK command: Ctrl---Y SEARCHING and REPLACING Perfect Writer provides the following commands for searching and replacing: Ctrl--S Searches forward from the position of the cursor for an item. Ctrl--R Searches backward from the position of the cursor for an item. Esc...R Searches for a named item, replacing it with another named item. Esc...Ctrl--R Searches for a named item, replacing it with a second named item. However, asks for confirmation before each replacement. Note: Perfect Writer searches for `strings of characters'. The basic rule to remember is: UPPERCASE letters will find and match only UPPERCASE letters, while lowercase letters will find and match both uppercase and lowercase letters. BUFFER COMMANDS Perfect Writer provides seven buffers, or workspaces, in computer memory for holding documents while you are editing. This means you can have up to seven documents active in memory at one time. The following commands allow you to switch between buffers holding documents and to list the names of those buffers: Ctrl--X Ctrl--B Presents a listing of active buffers at the top of the screen. The display is called the `Buffers Directory' and temporarily over- writes whatever text is being displayed. Ctrl--X B Switches you from one buffer to another. MARGIN COMMANDS When creating a document that will be printed `typewriter style' (using the PRINT DOCUMENT Command `Control--X Control--P'), the following commands allow you to change screen margins. Ctrl--X . (period) Sets the left screen margin. Ctrl--X F Sets the right screen margin (also known as the `fill' column). To use these commands move the cursor to the position on the screen where you want the new (left or right) margin to be. Type the appropriate command. Perfect Writer will respond: "Left (or right) margin is " TAB SPACING Perfect Writer initially begins each editing session with tabs set at 5 spaces. This can be changed using the SET TAB SPACING Command: Ctrl--X Changes the tab setting from the default 5 spaces to whatever spacing you specify. To use this command precede it with the Esc Key, followed by a number indicating the new tab spacing. For example: Escape. . .10 Perfect Writer will respond: "Arg(ument): 10" Type the SET TAB SPACING Command (Control--X ). Perfect Writer will change the tab spacing accordingly. The new spacing will remain in effect till the end of the current editing session. IMPORTANT NOTE: Tab and Margin settings will only be preserved in a document by printing that document `Typewriter style', in which the document is printed exactly as it is shown on the screen. QUITTING PERFECT WRITER When you are finished creating or revising a document, the command to return to the main menu is: Ctrl---X Ctrl--C END OF ADVINTRO�